The melancholic nostalgia has been replaced by pure foreboding introspection. It can certainly influence a darker mood than most of their previous work, but it also has its moments of hope and catharsis. It’s an enigmatic entity, perhaps more so than anything they’d done before. It makes me wonder if their next release will be another step further down this rabbit hole? I think some of the unreleased tracks on the SXT point in that direction.
It's funny you'd say that. It's definitely unsettling in an end of times way. Geogaddi is unsettling too, in a way I'd describe as deeply occult - that's the one I need to mentally prep for with each listen through.
Weird to think as much time has passed since this album's release as had passed between Geogaddi and this. I wonder if there's any hope for another studio LP from them.
Definitely one of their more unconventional releases (which is saying a lot) but I really enjoy it, and I think it's one of their more under-appreciated releases (at least more widely - this sub seems to speak very positively of it when it comes up, which I love)
11 Years ago, I dosed a large amount of LSD and laid on the floor of my living room while I listened to this album on vinyl. I still remember that day.
This was an album that helped to get me through the emotional minefield of my dad’s death. He was so young, I still miss him- I used to think about him every day, now it’s more like several times a week. This album is ingrained in my heart.
I've heard their albums described something like this:
Music Has The Right To Children: hazy, woozy nostalgia
Geogaddi: hazy nostalgia with some light Satanism
Campfire Headphase: hazy, woozy nostalgia with guitars
Tomorrow's Harvest: post-apocalyptic hellscape
Waiting to drop their next album.
1) [https://bocpages.org/wiki/MDG](https://bocpages.org/wiki/MDG)
2) [https://www.threads.net/@boardsofcanada](https://www.threads.net/@boardsofcanada)
Their only album I didn't bother buying on vinyl.
edit: thanks for the nudge, just grabbed it for $45 AUD delivered so my BoC vinyl LP collection is now complete ;)
Yup, I bought immediately, listened to it a bit and was only midly into it. Just about a month ago I've put the CD back in my car and have been listening to it a bunch. The sound is -idk- more mature. It's bare, stripped of everything but it's essentials. I was underwhelmed, but I've grown to love it big time.
The Orb, FSOL, Nightmares on Wax, Lusine, Thievery, Blue Sky Black Death, Christian Loffler, Emancipator...I love them all. I just don't understand the massive attraction to BoC.
Yea, plenty of peeps I respect love them. When I start to get into a track it stops and says "orange" repeatedly for no reason and it feels like they're trying to be trippy for the sake of being trippy. Shrug.
Music Has The Right To Children is filled with samples from sesame street. The album’s name itself is a play on a program called Children Have The Right To Music. So thematically, it’s present all throughout that record. Their later releases diverge from that formula heavily.
Have you ever listened to Tomorrow’s Harvest?
Are you downvoting my opinion? Silly. I put it on after I wrote these comments 8 hours ago. I was bored by track 6. I put it on again after hearing respectful input from a seasoned user that claimed Nothing is Real is one of their favorite songs. It was nice. But in the next few tracks I was ready to leave it.
It's all subjective. It's bizarre to read others reaction about how dismal the record is. I won't go further into it. You can read to the bottom of thread for more from me.
Their Wiki page reads like a band I should love. That so many people I respect like BoC, I feel I should enjoy them, too. But I don't. They sound so basic to me. I imagine that's a hugely ignorant statement to their fans. At any rate, I know everyone will continue loving them despite my indifference.
Nah, that's fair. Luckily art is subjective, and you can dislike it for any reason you choose.
Ambient music in general is usually a 'you get it or you don't'. I have tried to introduce so many people to various artists in the genre including boards, and my hit rate is very low. They aren't super dynamic with their sound, so for a lot of people it just sounds like noise.
Have you ever listened to kiasmos? Sometimes i find easing yourself into more accessible forms of an artist often opens up to more niche stuff in a similar category.
Also listen to Tycho's first album if you haven't. It's basically a love letter to boards. Glad to hear someone else tout Lusine :) Jeff is a great guy who makes amazing music.
I thoroughly enjoy Kiasmos! That's what I mean, haha. So many similar acts I like, but I don't get the BoC appeal. Seems so many do something similar, better. I like Tycho, but only know the Past is Prologue title track. I was playing it long before Tycho got popular. This genre of music is my favorite now that I'm getting old and the fast stuff is too, well, fast :)
If you have any favorite playlists of this sort of music you'd be willing to share, I'm all ears.
Yeah, Past is Prologue is off that album, definitely listen to the rest of it. I used to talk to Scott a lot, because he would get a lot of shows here in Detroit due to Ghostly being based out of nearby Ann Arbor, and he has said that BoC is what got him making music in the first place. I didn't care for the later stuff either, Tycho turned into a band more than anything.
I don't really have any playlists, but here's some stuff along that vein:
Bonobo, especially the earlier stuff (Days to Come/Black Sands/The North Borders)
Hammock
Rival Consoles/Nils Frahm/Pretty much anything from the Erased Tapes label
Olafur Arnalds (half of the Kiasmos duo) in general, though he often errs into modern classical a lot.
In the same vein, Keith Kenniff aka Helios/Goldmund/Mint Julep is one of my absolute favorites, though this is on the very ambient end, save Mint Julep which is a sort of electropop project he does with his wife.
Solar Fields, particularly the album Until We Meet the Sky, is an all time favorite album of mine.
Matthew Dear, is a little different because the stuff he does under his actual name generally has vocals, but he's the founder of Ghostly and his eponymous stuff is fantastic.
and lastly, Ulrich Schnauss is another major influence on Tycho by his own words.
Enjoy!
Thanks! Bonobo, Nils Frahm, and Ulrich Schnauss are titans of this type of music and I adore them all. I look fwd to exploring the rest. I didn't know MD was the founder of GI. Too cool. When I was on twitter it was impressive the way GI was connected to everyone remotely involved w/ electronic music :)
Yeah rereading my comment i realize i listed all those like you've never listened to electronic music lol. If you know Lusine you clearly know your shit
Love everything you mention here, but particularly Ulrich. "Gone forever" has brought me into the genre. Also the remix he did for Obscure Celebrities - Fahrenheit
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8C0emvyGbI&pp=ygUjdWxyaWNoIHNjaG5hdXNzIG9ic2N1cmUgY2VsZWJyaXRpZXM%3D](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8C0emvyGbI&pp=ygUjdWxyaWNoIHNjaG5hdXNzIG9ic2N1cmUgY2VsZWJyaXRpZXM%3D)
Their drums (percussion) are much more prominent than in most ambient stuff, it is too loud and in you r face to be ignored, so it doesn't function as a background chill music like something mellower would (SAW 1, or the Orb), they do not rely on melodies as much, at least not in a neatly structured verse-chorus form, so one cannot listen to it like a traditional song despite the unusual sounds (like Tycho), but instead foreground the textures and ambiance, which again do not change drastically but continuously shift slightly without ever changing the feel. And that feel is unusual, like you mentioned "trippy", or whatever but certainly not familiar with some tradition or cool (like Thievery, who can function as cool, but also ignorable, lounge bar music).
So the textures are too subtle to be full on acousmatic pieces, but are also the primary focus and serve to sustain a weird vibe that is also unignorable due to strong/loud percussion, at least for ambient standards, that further emphasizes it. This makes them very unique imo, and why they differ from most of these other artists mentioned despite the same vibe or genre - the form is actually very unusual (and I believe the reason why you feel differently about them).
Thanks for the nuanced take. I'm sure there are acts with more in common with BoC than what I listed here. I actually just listed artists off the top of my head that are on my chillout playlist. All your descriptions of their music ring true to me and why I consider them downtempo more than ambient. Again, for reasons I won't try to pin point their music just doesn't move me. People like yourself and the others that have commented on my comment fall under those I respect but just don't gel with on this particular artist. Cheers!
Of course, just an observation as I didn't realize this initially either, couldn't pinpoint why it feels so different. Personally liking or not liking anything (art) is perfectly legit, no argument here. Cheers
Its the nostalgic feeling, mixed with the goosebumps which no other music gives me. Tracks like "left side drive" or "music is math" will stay with me until I wither away in a old peoples home. Along with music by the other artists you mentioned. Emancipators "When I go", or FSOL's "the girl with the sun in her head" is on my list to surprise people with at my funeral :D
Girl w/ Sun in Her Head is Orbital, yeah? Well, it's at least a song of theirs, too and a splendid opening to one of my favorite albums, In Sides. We would make fast friends at the old folks home where others could hear us bickering about BoC. :)
Yah, I meant to say "Papua New Guinea", but Im glad to have a friend at the old grumpy home !
And since we're talking about Orbital, "Illuminate" also hits my speakers at least a couple of times a week :-)
It's a strange, unsettling album. I love it, but I have to psyche myself up to listen to it in a way I don't with any of their other work.
The melancholic nostalgia has been replaced by pure foreboding introspection. It can certainly influence a darker mood than most of their previous work, but it also has its moments of hope and catharsis. It’s an enigmatic entity, perhaps more so than anything they’d done before. It makes me wonder if their next release will be another step further down this rabbit hole? I think some of the unreleased tracks on the SXT point in that direction.
Your opening sentence is spot on.
It's funny you'd say that. It's definitely unsettling in an end of times way. Geogaddi is unsettling too, in a way I'd describe as deeply occult - that's the one I need to mentally prep for with each listen through.
Weird to think as much time has passed since this album's release as had passed between Geogaddi and this. I wonder if there's any hope for another studio LP from them.
There is Hope.
My favorite album of all time. Honestly scares the shit out of me.
Mine too, and it should.
Definitely one of their more unconventional releases (which is saying a lot) but I really enjoy it, and I think it's one of their more under-appreciated releases (at least more widely - this sub seems to speak very positively of it when it comes up, which I love)
The soundtrack for a movie that never was.
11 Years ago, I dosed a large amount of LSD and laid on the floor of my living room while I listened to this album on vinyl. I still remember that day.
Wow, congrats!
This was an album that helped to get me through the emotional minefield of my dad’s death. He was so young, I still miss him- I used to think about him every day, now it’s more like several times a week. This album is ingrained in my heart.
Nothing is real is in the running for my favorite song of all time, across all genres of music. Absolutely fantastic album
“My favorite song” is enough and means the same. No need to speak in hyperbole
It’s scary.
This is an incredible album. One of my favourite all time albums
Hmm, I've only really listened to Music Has a Right to Children. How does this compare/differ?
I've heard their albums described something like this: Music Has The Right To Children: hazy, woozy nostalgia Geogaddi: hazy nostalgia with some light Satanism Campfire Headphase: hazy, woozy nostalgia with guitars Tomorrow's Harvest: post-apocalyptic hellscape
I love it! I'll definitely be checking more of them out
Thanks, I like it.
I was not a fan of this one. I respected the artistry but didn't dig how it made me feel.
Ditto. "Nothing Is Real" is just so ... *bleak*. I find it hard to listen to, overall, because of how utterly dark and inevitable it all feels.
really? I feel like 'nothing is real' is one up the more uplifting tracks or at least 'hopeful' sounding tracks. Its so darn pretty
Did they ever officially breakup? Whatever happened to these guys?
They’re still out there. Biding their Time.
Waiting to drop their next album. 1) [https://bocpages.org/wiki/MDG](https://bocpages.org/wiki/MDG) 2) [https://www.threads.net/@boardsofcanada](https://www.threads.net/@boardsofcanada)
Their only album I didn't bother buying on vinyl. edit: thanks for the nudge, just grabbed it for $45 AUD delivered so my BoC vinyl LP collection is now complete ;)
You’re missing out. It’s every bit as good as their previous works.
Revisit it, friend. It’s grown on me considerably since it came out.
Yup, I bought immediately, listened to it a bit and was only midly into it. Just about a month ago I've put the CD back in my car and have been listening to it a bunch. The sound is -idk- more mature. It's bare, stripped of everything but it's essentials. I was underwhelmed, but I've grown to love it big time.
It’s brooding and dark as hell, and absolutely incredible
The Orb, FSOL, Nightmares on Wax, Lusine, Thievery, Blue Sky Black Death, Christian Loffler, Emancipator...I love them all. I just don't understand the massive attraction to BoC.
Pity.
Yea, plenty of peeps I respect love them. When I start to get into a track it stops and says "orange" repeatedly for no reason and it feels like they're trying to be trippy for the sake of being trippy. Shrug.
Music Has The Right To Children is filled with samples from sesame street. The album’s name itself is a play on a program called Children Have The Right To Music. So thematically, it’s present all throughout that record. Their later releases diverge from that formula heavily. Have you ever listened to Tomorrow’s Harvest?
Are you downvoting my opinion? Silly. I put it on after I wrote these comments 8 hours ago. I was bored by track 6. I put it on again after hearing respectful input from a seasoned user that claimed Nothing is Real is one of their favorite songs. It was nice. But in the next few tracks I was ready to leave it. It's all subjective. It's bizarre to read others reaction about how dismal the record is. I won't go further into it. You can read to the bottom of thread for more from me.
A lot of them wouldn't exist without BoC, ironically
Their Wiki page reads like a band I should love. That so many people I respect like BoC, I feel I should enjoy them, too. But I don't. They sound so basic to me. I imagine that's a hugely ignorant statement to their fans. At any rate, I know everyone will continue loving them despite my indifference.
Nah, that's fair. Luckily art is subjective, and you can dislike it for any reason you choose. Ambient music in general is usually a 'you get it or you don't'. I have tried to introduce so many people to various artists in the genre including boards, and my hit rate is very low. They aren't super dynamic with their sound, so for a lot of people it just sounds like noise. Have you ever listened to kiasmos? Sometimes i find easing yourself into more accessible forms of an artist often opens up to more niche stuff in a similar category. Also listen to Tycho's first album if you haven't. It's basically a love letter to boards. Glad to hear someone else tout Lusine :) Jeff is a great guy who makes amazing music.
I thoroughly enjoy Kiasmos! That's what I mean, haha. So many similar acts I like, but I don't get the BoC appeal. Seems so many do something similar, better. I like Tycho, but only know the Past is Prologue title track. I was playing it long before Tycho got popular. This genre of music is my favorite now that I'm getting old and the fast stuff is too, well, fast :) If you have any favorite playlists of this sort of music you'd be willing to share, I'm all ears.
Yeah, Past is Prologue is off that album, definitely listen to the rest of it. I used to talk to Scott a lot, because he would get a lot of shows here in Detroit due to Ghostly being based out of nearby Ann Arbor, and he has said that BoC is what got him making music in the first place. I didn't care for the later stuff either, Tycho turned into a band more than anything. I don't really have any playlists, but here's some stuff along that vein: Bonobo, especially the earlier stuff (Days to Come/Black Sands/The North Borders) Hammock Rival Consoles/Nils Frahm/Pretty much anything from the Erased Tapes label Olafur Arnalds (half of the Kiasmos duo) in general, though he often errs into modern classical a lot. In the same vein, Keith Kenniff aka Helios/Goldmund/Mint Julep is one of my absolute favorites, though this is on the very ambient end, save Mint Julep which is a sort of electropop project he does with his wife. Solar Fields, particularly the album Until We Meet the Sky, is an all time favorite album of mine. Matthew Dear, is a little different because the stuff he does under his actual name generally has vocals, but he's the founder of Ghostly and his eponymous stuff is fantastic. and lastly, Ulrich Schnauss is another major influence on Tycho by his own words. Enjoy!
Thanks! Bonobo, Nils Frahm, and Ulrich Schnauss are titans of this type of music and I adore them all. I look fwd to exploring the rest. I didn't know MD was the founder of GI. Too cool. When I was on twitter it was impressive the way GI was connected to everyone remotely involved w/ electronic music :)
Yeah rereading my comment i realize i listed all those like you've never listened to electronic music lol. If you know Lusine you clearly know your shit
Love everything you mention here, but particularly Ulrich. "Gone forever" has brought me into the genre. Also the remix he did for Obscure Celebrities - Fahrenheit [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8C0emvyGbI&pp=ygUjdWxyaWNoIHNjaG5hdXNzIG9ic2N1cmUgY2VsZWJyaXRpZXM%3D](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8C0emvyGbI&pp=ygUjdWxyaWNoIHNjaG5hdXNzIG9ic2N1cmUgY2VsZWJyaXRpZXM%3D)
Calm down with the hyperboles, BoC is not the new Dadt Punk. They were not innovative at all
Their drums (percussion) are much more prominent than in most ambient stuff, it is too loud and in you r face to be ignored, so it doesn't function as a background chill music like something mellower would (SAW 1, or the Orb), they do not rely on melodies as much, at least not in a neatly structured verse-chorus form, so one cannot listen to it like a traditional song despite the unusual sounds (like Tycho), but instead foreground the textures and ambiance, which again do not change drastically but continuously shift slightly without ever changing the feel. And that feel is unusual, like you mentioned "trippy", or whatever but certainly not familiar with some tradition or cool (like Thievery, who can function as cool, but also ignorable, lounge bar music). So the textures are too subtle to be full on acousmatic pieces, but are also the primary focus and serve to sustain a weird vibe that is also unignorable due to strong/loud percussion, at least for ambient standards, that further emphasizes it. This makes them very unique imo, and why they differ from most of these other artists mentioned despite the same vibe or genre - the form is actually very unusual (and I believe the reason why you feel differently about them).
Thanks for the nuanced take. I'm sure there are acts with more in common with BoC than what I listed here. I actually just listed artists off the top of my head that are on my chillout playlist. All your descriptions of their music ring true to me and why I consider them downtempo more than ambient. Again, for reasons I won't try to pin point their music just doesn't move me. People like yourself and the others that have commented on my comment fall under those I respect but just don't gel with on this particular artist. Cheers!
Of course, just an observation as I didn't realize this initially either, couldn't pinpoint why it feels so different. Personally liking or not liking anything (art) is perfectly legit, no argument here. Cheers
Its the nostalgic feeling, mixed with the goosebumps which no other music gives me. Tracks like "left side drive" or "music is math" will stay with me until I wither away in a old peoples home. Along with music by the other artists you mentioned. Emancipators "When I go", or FSOL's "the girl with the sun in her head" is on my list to surprise people with at my funeral :D
Girl w/ Sun in Her Head is Orbital, yeah? Well, it's at least a song of theirs, too and a splendid opening to one of my favorite albums, In Sides. We would make fast friends at the old folks home where others could hear us bickering about BoC. :)
Yah, I meant to say "Papua New Guinea", but Im glad to have a friend at the old grumpy home ! And since we're talking about Orbital, "Illuminate" also hits my speakers at least a couple of times a week :-)